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A Traveler's Needs film image; tired woman sits on bed

A Traveler's Needs

Yeohaengjaui pilyo / 여행자의 필요

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Canadian Premiere

In her third film with VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo, Isabelle Huppert plays a mysterious Frenchwoman abroad in South Korea. Iris is her name, and as the movie opens she’s giving a most unconventional language lesson to Isong (Kim Seungyun), a novice French learner and amateur musician. Next in Iris’s schedule are Wonju (Lee Hyeyoung) and Haesoon (Kwon Haehyo), a couple for whom instruction will involve significant quantities of booze. As we follow this quirky lady through a series of encounters, Hong deploys suggestive repetition, with motifs that recur from scene to scene—only to break the pattern by introducing Iris’s much-younger boyfriend Inguk (Ha Seongguk)…

Hong is a major filmmaker of modest means: out of awkward social encounters, relatable human folly, and teasing enigmas, he’s built one of contemporary cinema’s most impressive oeuvres. Here he explores cultural difference with a unique method but typically humorous results. Much like the Korean poetry it showcases, A Traveler’s Needs is deceptively small-scale and delicately profound—a lovely little work of art.

 

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Berlin 2024

 

Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hyeyoung, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee, Ha Seongguk

Credits
Country of Origin

South Korea

Year

2024

Language

In English, French and Korean with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
90 min
Award Winners Cinemas of Asia Comedy Drama Legendary Filmmakers Romance
JEONWONSA Film Company

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Credits & Director

Producer

Hong Sangsoo

Screenwriter

Hong Sangsoo

Cinematography

Hong Sangsoo

Editor

Hong Sangsoo

Original Music

Hong Sangsoo

Hong Sangsoo headshot; A Traveler's Needs director

Hong Sangsoo 홍상수

Hong Sangsoo was born in Seoul, South Korea on Oct. 25, 1960. He studied at Chung-Ang University, California College of the Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He made his first feature film in 1996. Since then he has made 31 feature films and a few short films.

Filmography: The Power of Kangwon Province (1998); A Tale of Cinema (2005); The Day He Arrives (2011); Right Now, Wrong Then (2015); On the Beach at Night Alone (2017); Introduction (2021)

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